In the drilling and completion industry it is known that operations affecting an earth formation including operations such as fracturing, or “fracing”, operations can be beneficial for a number of reasons. In some cases, for example, fracturing operations help to stimulate the production of hydrocarbons from earth formations. In such operations, portions of the formation are fractured to increase fluid flow from the formation into a borehole. Fracturing generally includes isolating a portion of the borehole and pressurizing fluid therein to a pressure sufficient to cause a fracture in the formation. Boreholes may include both vertical and horizontal sections, such as long horizontal wells commonly used in shale gas and other tight formations. In recent years many methods have been used to allow multiple fractures to be induced along the length of a lateral section.
Fracturing techniques and systems allow borehole sections to be isolated and fractured at discrete intervals. However, fractures generally cannot be initiated at defined points, but rather the fractures most likely run from unknown points within the desired interval. These points are likely to be points of weakness or superimposed stress, such as stress caused by isolation packers. If an isolation packer causes a high stress point or a fracture from an adjacent interval has weakened the formation near the isolation packer, the new fracture may initiate in close proximity to an adjacent fracture zone. This can cause adjacent fractures to interconnect or run parallel closely together, likely resulting in a lower productivity index, resulting in much of the interval between the packers being left unfractured and less productive than planned.